A wide variety of tracked vehicles are used in assorted heavy equipment applications such as earth moving, construction, drilling, excavation, road work, agriculture, etc. These vehicles typically utilize a pair of endless metal tracks, which are also referred to as chains or crawlers, for driving the vehicle across the earth. Between jobs, tractors and other tracked vehicles typically must be transported by means of a flatbed trailer to a storage facility or another job site. Unfortunately, during the course of many, if not most jobs, the vehicle is apt to collect rocks, stones, dirt, gravel and other debris in and around the links of the endless tracks. Such debris is easily dislodged and dropped during subsequent highway transport of the vehicle. This can cause serious damage to passing vehicles. As a result, the heavy equipment owner can be subject to expensive damage claims and increased insurance costs. The material dropped from the exposed chains also creates a serious roadway hazard.
To avoid the potential damage and danger caused by falling rocks, earth and debris, the heavy equipment operator can carefully clean the links of the endless track before the tracked vehicle is transported on the trailer. Such cleaning usually involves considerable time, labor and expense, particularly when a large piece of equipment is involved. In many cases, transport of the vehicle cannot be delayed and there is simply insufficient time to tediously and meticulously remove the earth and debris from the tractor chain in a sufficiently comprehensive manner.